praematurus

Forms

praemātūrus (feminine praemātūra, neuter praemātūrum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“before”) + mātūrus (“ripe, timely”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives mātūrus from a noun Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), Proto-Indo-European *meh2-tu- (“ripeness”), probably from the same root as mānus (“good”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records the adjective first in a letter of Plancus to Cicero, of a premature declaration, praematura denuntiatio, by an unprepared good citizen; the adverb praemātūrē is older and already in Plautus.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its two senses are ripened very or too early, and happening very or too early.^[2] Columella speaks of the very early fruit of the cucumber,^[2][5] and Pliny the Elder of training oxen at three years, later being too late and earlier too early.^[3] Of things that happen before their time it is used of death, from Velleius and Pliny on,^[3][5] of ashes in Juvenal,^[5] and often in Tacitus, of an early winter, of honours that make young minds proud, and of a head disfigured by premature grey hair.^[3][5] The TLL notes it is frequent in Tacitus and Ambrose^[3] and has no comparative or superlative,^[3] though the comparative of the adverb is in the Digest.^[5] Church Latin glosses it eager, premature, too early.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the adverb praemātūrē.^[5][3][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella, of very early fruit.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of early winter and premature honours.^[3][7]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it often.^[3][7]
• 1520s – English premature takes its sense “done before the proper time”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Ripening very early or too early; of a birth, premature.^[2][5]
2. Happening very or too early, untimely; very prompt.^[2][5][6]

Related words

• mātūrus
• immātūrus
• praecox
• English premature

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com